A cognitive-pragmatic account of the structural elements of the ironic event

Abstract

This article discusses the ironist, the interpreter, and the target as structural elements of irony from a cognitive-linguistic standpoint. It builds on the scenario-based approach to irony, where ironic meaning is taken as a contextually adjustable inference that results from a clash between epistemic and attested conceptual scenarios. The article provides a classification of ironist, interpreter, and target types, and then it discusses the functions of irony (i.e., attacking, mocking, being playful, showing off, and persuading) and the solidarity component involved in ironic production and interpretation. It further explains the factors involved in the identification of the epistemic and the attested scenarios, and those involved in the interpretation of irony. The resulting analysis of the structural elements of irony endows the study of irony with greater descriptive delicacy and explanatory adequacy.